In the spirit of building up to our big Friday hike - and not damaging ourselves before that day - We decided on a nice, gentle hike for Thursday: Gem Lake.
Gem Lake and its trail head are in the Lumpy Range. If you google the Stanley Hotel - the hotel where Stephen King wrote “The Shining” - you’ll see the rocks of the lumpy range behind the hotel.
The feeling and look of hiking in the lumpy range is a lot different from most of the hikes in Rocky Mountain National park. While the climate in Colorado is very dry, which makes for very comfortable hiking, the climate in the Lumpy Range felt like it was in Arizona.
Did I mention that this is the time of year when the wild flowers are in full bloom in Colorado? They were everywhere, despite there being literally no rain in our area for about 10 days, and temperatures daily in the 90’s. Flowers everywhere.
And even in the Lumpy Range. Gem Lake is really just a glorified pond, and with the moderate drought going on in Northern Colorado, it had shrunk to 3/4 it’s usual size, and no water was draining out of it.
The hike is only about 5 miles, and about 450 feet in elevation gain.The climb is simply beautiful, mostly because of the stunning rock formations..
There was kind of a big crowd at the top, not a feature you hope for at the end of a climb in beautiful, natural wilderness. Probably about 30 people, standing in the water, music playing, teenagers yanking. It felt more like a water park. We brought a picnic, so we walked just about 1/2 mile further, out on a ridge with a beautiful view of the Estes valley. We sunned and ate and made friends with all of the wildlife - chipmonks, crows, ants.
I was very inspired by the scenery on this hike, so I have lots of pictures… more than I can show on this blog.
This time when we got back to our camp site, we DID have cocktails next to the river at camp. Then we made sure our back packs were perfectly set for our final hike on Friday. Here’s hoping no body parts get more damaged than they already are..
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